The Heart of Me
by Damsel In Distress-Like
Summary: Two vampire brothers - one very human girl. Their lives change forever the moment Stefan Salvatore decides he must know Elena Gilbert - and Damon Salvatore decides he must have her. Their story retold through Damon's eyes as he rediscovers his humanity.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: **This is my first Vampire Diaries fanfiction ever, and it is based solely on the show as I have not read the books. If you are not a fan of Damon, I would not suggest reading this. If you are not a fan of Damon and Elena as a couple, well for a while you won't have to worry, but the story will be focusing more on their relationship than Stefan and Elena's, since it's Damon's perspective. Simple, right? I want to try to make each chapter one full episode of Vampire Diaries, but because I also want to include a lot of my own original scenes more than anything, I may have chapters in between episodes or split them into two chapters, etc. No idea yet. We'll see how things go, but for now... read and review!

**Spoiler Alert**: If you have not seen episode 11, 'Bloodlines', this first chapter will have spoilers. I would really recommend having seen up to episode 20 before reading this story at all, simply because certain things are revealed about Stefan and Damon in these later episodes that I may refer to in early chapters of this story. This will be my one and only spoiler alert.

**Disclaimer**: 'The Vampire Diaries' and it's characters do not belong to me. Some of the scenes in this story will also not belong to me, and if you're a fan of the TV show you will recognize what scenes these are. This will be my one and only disclaimer, and will apply to all future chapters. I am a simple fan wanting to put my own twist to the story being told on the show, through Damon's eyes.

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**The Heart of Me  
**_Damsel In Distress-Like_

Prologue

Damon watched as his brother Stefan dove into the water after the car that was now rapidly sinking beneath the surface. Stefan was always one for being the rescuer, the 'good' brother, the model vampire.

Pathetic.

For over a century, the two brothers had been at opposite ends of the spectrum. Stefan was everything that was good, and light - or so he claimed. Damon, on the other hand, was dark. 'Evil.' Just because he chose to embrace the hand fate had dealt him, to embrace what it meant to be a _vampire. _

It didn't matter that Stefan had stolen the one true love Damon could ever hope to have. It didn't matter that Stefan had made the choice to become a vampire first, that he had done so by feeding from their father. Damon was the heartless one, the one too far gone to be saved.

Damon looked back down at Wickery Bridge to see Stefan's head pop up out of the water. He dragged a young girl out of the water before diving back under. If Damon's heart could beat, it would have stopped in that moment.

It was Katherine. How could Stefan have known about the tomb? Damon had made sure that it was kept secret from his brother, he had made sure that Stefan believed Katherine to be dead. How could he have gotten her from the tomb?

Yet the more he looked at her, vulnerable and near death, he realized that she wasn't Katherine. She wasn't even a vampire.

Who was she?

Stefan surfaced once more, but he was empty-handed. He walked up to the girl lying in the grass, but unlike Damon he didn't seem entranced. He wasn't at all entranced by the girl who looked so much like the one they had both loved. No, Stefan was fearful.

"What are you afraid of, brother?" Damon whispered, quietly enough that he knew Stefan's sensitive hearing wouldn't pick up on it. "Perhaps I'll stay in Mystic Falls - for a while." His mouth slowly curved into a smirk, and in a flash he was gone.

* * *

**Author's Note**: I'm going to try very, very hard to keep Damon in character. He's not going to be thinking about how in love with Elena he is all the time in these early chapters when we've all seen it progressively happen on the show. Make sense? Good. Read and review! And what were your thoughts on last nights episode of Vampire Diaries if you saw it? Thoughts for next weeks FINALE? Oh, and for the record, only my prologues are insanely short ;P And epilogues but that's far off.


	2. Pilot

**Author's Note**: I know that in the books, Damon is supposed to be able to turn into a crow, but in the show it seems more like he controls or possesses them, sees what they see, that sort of thing. That's what I'll be using for this story, unless an explanation pops up in the show that gives more detail about his vampire show tricks. Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed, favourited, or added this story to their alerts! I also accept anonymous reviews, I know a lot of author's don't (which always annoys me when I'm too lazy to sign on to my main fanfiction account xP) but I do! =)

_**HAPPY **__**FINALE**__** NIGHT! **__It's going to be _intense_!_

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**The Heart of Me**

_Damsel In Distress-Like_

Pilot

Several months went by, and Damon remained hidden from his brother. He didn't want his reappearance in Mystic Falls to be known - not yet, anyway. He watched as Stefan sat outside the Katherine lookalike's house.

The girl's name was Elena, Damon had learned - Stefan wasn't the only one keeping tabs on her. Her parents had been killed that day on Wickery Bridge. Damon supposed he could have helped Stefan, worked with him to save them - but who was he kidding? Damon didn't care.

In the beginning, Damon kept to the shadows. When he fed off humans, he did it far away from Mystic Falls and covered his tracks well. No one suspected that vampires were around, and that was exactly the way he wanted it. Damon kept up this charade until he heard Stefan talking to one of their last remaining 'relatives,' Zack.

"I've decided to make Mystic Falls my home again," Stefan was saying. "At least for now. I've enrolled in the local highschool."

"Do you think that's wise, Uncle Stefan?" Damon heard Zack ask. Damon rolled his eyes; he never could stand the pitiful Zack, the way he acted so self-righteous, so judgemental of the family's "black sheep." He refused to have a family of his own because he was afraid of what his vampire ancestors might do.

_Trust me Zack, _Damon thought with a smirk, _you are far from worth my time. For now, anyway. I only have two purposes in life: release my sweet Katherine from the tomb beneath the old church, and make sure that Stefan's eternity as a vampire is miserable._

"I have to know her." Damon was pulled from his thoughts at these words; was Stefan referring to the little human girl who looked so much like Katherine? Was it possible that his brother still had feelings for the woman he had doomed so many years ago? Or was this something else?

_If you have to know her, brother, _Damon thought, _then I have to _have _her. _It was time to begin making his presence in the small town known. That night, Damon hunted within Mystic Falls.

* * *

It took little effort for Damon to use his powers to make the fog around him grow thicker as he waited for a car to drive up. When he heard the sound of an engine roaring off in the distance, the corners of his mouth curled up.

Standing in the middle of the road, Damon waited. The car struck him, and he flew up over the hood, smashing against the windshield and going up over the car. The pain never came; Damon fed off humans enough to ensure that. Despite this he didn't move at all as the car came to a stop and the man who had been driving got out to check on him.

"Please be alive," Damon heard the man say. He waited as the driver reached for his hand to feel for his pulse, and when he didn't find one, the man began to panic. Damon could smell his fear, and it made him thirsty. It took a mere second for Damon to grip his hand around the man's neck to restrain him, and even less for him to sink his teeth roughly into the man's flesh. The blood flowed into Damon's mouth and he drank as if he were possessed. Rich and warm, the blood trickled down the back of Damon's throat.

He couldn't forget that there was another human at the scene, someone Damon couldn't leave alive. He grabbed the man and hid himself in the fog as he made his way closer to the car. The woman got out, calling for him. Darren. Damon threw Darren's body roughly against the hood of the car and listened as the woman screamed. The sound was oh-so-delicious, but Damon wanted more. He wanted a feast.

The woman began to run, which Damon took as a challenge, a game of cat and mouse. He let her get ahead, long enough to think that she might have a chance at survival, before he jumped down and grabbed her from the road. He drained her nearly dry before dumping her body with the other human. He didn't bother to hide their bodies; his plan was for them to be found.

* * *

The next morning it was all over the news about the two bodies that had been found - Darren Malloy and Brooke Fenton, both in their twenties. Damon smirked to himself as he wondered what dear Saint Stefan thought about this - if he had even heard yet.

It was supposed to be the first day of school. Damon summoned a crow to be his eyes, and guided it to Elena's house so that he could watch as she left. For a long while he had debated about how he wanted to handle the situation with her. Damon's ultimate goal was to make Stefan feel broken, to feel like nothing mattered. He wanted Stefan to lose the ability to feel guilt and remorse, and to become the monster Damon knew he was capable of being.

If Damon couldn't be a vampire with Katherine - at least for a while - there was no way in hell he was letting Stefan pretend to be a human with Elena Gilbert.

_For now, _Damon thought as he followed the car Elena had left in, _I'll have a little fun putting Elena on edge. _He knew that this was the first time Elena had been in a vehicle since the accident that killed her parents.

Damon waited until he saw Elena look away from the passenger side window before guiding the bird straight down toward the car. He struck against the windshield, but his vampire powers allowed the bird to not feel anything for the moment. The driver of the car slammed on the breaks, and the car swerved, barely missing the curb as it came to a stop.

Damon flew the crow up to the road sign and waited to hear the screaming of a girl reminded of her parents death - but it never came. He turned the bird's head slightly toward the car and saw the girls smiling. _What the hell? _

The car started moving forward again and drove past. Damon released the bird angrily, opening his eyes back at the motel where he had been staying. He grabbed the key off the bedside table and walked down to the main office. He set the key down on the table before turning to leave.

"Hey, I don't think I remember you coming in," the man said suddenly, coming from around the desk and stopping Damon. "What's your name?"

"My name doesn't matter," Damon said smoothly, looking into the man's eyes as he compelled him. "You will forget that I was here, you will forget this conversation. You'll see that key there and think you forgot to hang it back up on the hook, and then you will go back to doing your crossword."

The man stared blankly at him for a few moments, and by the time he was released from Damon's compulsion, Damon had already ran off.

As the day progressed, Damon found himself drawn to the school. There were things he had to do, things to get prepared for getting Katherine out of the tomb - but he also knew that Stefan would be ensuring he "bumped" into Elena that day at school, and Damon had to make sure that they didn't get together. Stefan could not be permitted to get what he wanted.

Damon himself was in the cemetary, hidden from view of the entrance. He knew that Elena would go there to see her parents at some point - she went every day. He closed his eyes and once again he was separated from his body and placed in the body of a crow. He flew it toward the school and waited, circling above the parking lot.

When she came out, Damon was once again struck by her beauty, her likeness to Katherine. _Why do you look so much like her? _Damon could help but wonder. He saw her decline a ride from the girl she had come to school with, and he didn't miss the shy but curious glance she threw in the direction of Stefan. His eyes narrowed but he was glad to see she didn't go toward his brother; Elena kept walking in the direction of the cemetary.

_Soon, _Damon thought, _you'll meet the other - better - Salvatore brother. _As Elena neared the entrance, Damon squawked in anticipation. What should he do, he wondered? Compel her to drink from him and make her a vampire? Compel her to kiss him, to want him? _Kill _her?

In the end, he waited, watching as she wrote in her diary in front of her parents tombstone. He watched the expressions she made as she poured out her soul, and he found himself intrigued. She was so different from Katherine, despite looking the same. Katherine always had a smile on her face, and a knowing look that said she knew everyone wanted her; she thrived on that knowledge.

Elena on the other hand was much more serious. She rarely seemed to smile, and when she did, it never quite reached her eyes. She looked distracted all the time, like she was in her own little world and shutting everyone else out from it. _How boring, _Damon thought. _Why don't I make things a little more... exciting? _

Damon, still possessing the crow, flew on top of Elena's parents gravestone. He waited for Elena to notice him, but when she didn't, he grew angry and squawked. The fog began rolling in, slowly building with every noise Damon made as the crow. Elena looked up at him a little uneasily.

"Okay," Elena said finally. "Hi bird." She looked away immediately after saying it and continued writing in her journal. Damon made the crow squawk again, and the fog finally seemed to catch Elena's attention.

Suddenly she was standing and shooing the bird, willing him to fly away.

"Shoo!" Elena cried out. Damon guided the crow away and landed on the tombstone behind her. "That's what I thought," Elena said, her voice still a little shaky. She turned around and the crow squawked at her again. Elena took a few steps backwards, nearly stumbling. As Damon continued to try scaring her, Elena slowly reached down and grabbed her bag.

As Elena ran off, Damon made the crow fly into the air and then released it. He stepped out from behind the statue he had been leaning against and watched as Elena fled. The scent of her fear filled the air, and Damon smiled, tilting his head slightly as he waited for her to get further away.

Elena stopped just as she got to the trees and almost seemed to see him. Damon swiftly stepped back behind the statue out of sight. He waited until she was gone before stepping back away from the statue. She had left her journal lying on the ground.

"How nice - for me," Damon said, smirking. He bent down and grabbed it, flipping through it. He opened up to an older entry from just after the accident at Wickery Bridge, and began reading.

_Dear Diary,_

_Today when I woke up, I felt empty. I felt myself drowning as everything that had happened the past month came crashing around me. How could my parents be dead? How could I have lived, instead of them?_

_It was my fault that they were at Wickery Bridge that day. I was so selfish. "It's supposed to be the best party of the year," I told them. "I have to go." They said no, of course. Family Night was the one night we all had together where we could just sit down and talk, play games, be a real family. I didn't care. I went out anyway, and when I got stranded there, I was forced to call them. Thank God Jeremy wasn't with us. If he had... I probably would have lost my brother too._

_The house feels empty without them here. Aunt Jenna is trying, but no one can replace my parents. They were one of a kind._

_Matt came over yesterday to comfort me, but I slammed the door shut in his face and told him I just wanted to be left alone. He sounded hurt, and he sat on the front porch for a long time before leaving. I'm going to break up with him. I care for him a lot, I do, but... I'm not the same person anymore. I'm not good._

Damon inhaled sharply; so this was why Elena looked so dead to the world. If he had any trace of humanity left within him, he might have felt bad. He might have even thought they were a lot alike. Instead, all he felt was satisfaction.

Stefan had rescued Elena from the car accident that day. He could have rescued her parents, but he rescued her instead. Surely, Elena would hate him for that if she ever found out.

Damon dropped the journal to the ground; he didn't care about getting to know Elena, getting to see inside her soul. He just cared that he made sure Stefan didn't have her.

* * *

Damon was standing outside of where the church once was. Every time he came to Mystic Falls, he came here, knowing that Katherine was trapped inside and there was nothing he could do - yet. He'd sit outside of the ruins and allow himself, for just that moment, to feel the pain he kept turned off any other time.

Unfortunately, the music in the distance coming from some party was deafening. It was circumstances like these that made it unfortunate to have vampire hearing - there was never complete silence. He picked up on an annoyingly girly voice saying, "Hey, you made it!"

Damon was prepared to tune her out when he heard Stefan's response. "I did."

That annoying, girly voice hadn't belonged to Elena - so what game was Stefan playing now? _I think I might have to crash that party, _Damon thought, standing up as he shut out all feelings except anger and revenge. _I'm feeling a little parched._

Damon took his time moving towards the party, listening to the voices he picked up as he tried to find out whether or not Elena was there.

"No, you know what, never mind. You're here." It was Elena. Damon started to run when he heard Stefan respond, "I'm here."

They both sounded happy and awkwardly cute. It was disgusting - and Damon planned on putting a damper on the entire evening.

"You are not going to get what you want, Stefan. Not this time," Damon whispered angrily. He made his way through the trees and stepped back when he saw a couple making out against a tree. He could - would - make them his next victims. He was just about to step out from his hiding place to attack when he saw some drunk kid wandering toward them. It was Elena's brother, Jeremy. While he was sure that killing Jeremy would utterly destroy Elena - and hopefully Stefan's chances with her - Damon didn't want to do that. Not yet. It was so much more fun to torture Stefan a little first.

Damon waited, bored, as the humans argued amongst themselves. God they were so melodramatic, no wonder Stefan wanted to pretend to be like them - it fit his personality perfectly. _You don't have to kill to feed, _Stefan would say; _you don't even have to drink from humans at all._

Right, because bunnies and squirrels were _totally _'in' right now for vampires - or, _not. _Stefan wanted to be a human, so let him feed from animals and render his vampire powers useless. Damon, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with being human. There was nothing in this world worth being human for.

When the girl ran off, Jeremy didn't follow - but Damon did. He was behind her, stalking her, waiting for her to get far enough from the party that there should be no chances of anyone hearing her scream.

The girl suddenly slowed down and turned around; Damon ducked back into the shadows, and saw with a small grin of satisfaction that the fog had appeared without him even thinking about it.

"Jeremy? Is that you?" The girl called out, unsure. Damon rolled his eyes as the girl finally noticed the fog around her. She began walking again and Damon stepped out into plain sight, staring at her. The girl spun around again.

"Jeremy?" She called out. Damon quickly moved to the other side of her, and when she turned back to resume walking, he leapt toward her and bit down roughly on her neck.

He was losing himself in the blood, but something in the back of Damon's head told him that he needed to stop. He couldn't feed to kill, not this time; he needed her _alive. _To remember that it was a vampire that had attacked her, because then Stefan could be hunted and persecuted by the townspeople who still remembered the truth behind the "animal attacks."

Dropping the girl on the ground, Damon wiped the blood from his mouth. Though it was tempting to hide out around the body and watch everything unfold from there, Damon thought of how much more satisfying it would be to see Stefan's reaction as they brought the girl out of the woods. And they would find her soon - Damon could hear a clumsy human stumbling in the darkness ahead already.

_What are you going to do now, Stefan? _Damon thought, smirking as he fled the scene. _Will you leave town? Hunt me down? No, _Damon thought, _that won't be necessary. I'll see you at home. _He watched from a distance as Jeremy and Elena brought the girl out of the woods. Stefan's face was a mix of horror and anger; had he figured out yet who was behind these drained bodies, Damon wondered?

It was time for him to make his reappearance in Mystic Falls known. Damon ran back to the boarding house and waited in the shadows for Stefan.

* * *

"What's going on?" Damon heard Zack ask; he sounded alarmed by Stefan's sudden appearance.

"Somebody else was attacked tonight Zack and it wasn't me." Stefan ran up the stairs to his room, his thundering steps acting as a cue for Damon. He jumped up to the balcony outside of Stefan's room and kept out of sight. He waited a moment before calling a crow to fly up onto Stefan's balcony railing.

Damon knew that Stefan could see it; that he'd know what it meant. He was merely toying with his brother, giving him the chance to figure it out. _Go ahead, _Damon thought, as he stepped in front of the door. _Add it together. Two plus two equals...?_

Stefan turned slowly around.

"Damon." Stefan didn't sound shocked, but he certainly looked it. Damon wasn't sure why - he had, after all, promised him an eternity of misery. Should it really come as a surprise to Stefan that Damon would be there, once again, to ruin any hope of happiness Stefan had?

"Hello, brother." Damon stepped into the house and the crow he had been controlling flew back behind him, landing on the railing.

"The crow's a bit much, don't you think?" Stefan said, as the crow behind them continued making noise. Damon snooped through some papers indifferently, before looking up at Stefan.

"Wait until you see what I can do with the fog." Damon bragged, smirking. Had Stefan noticed the fog when that girl's body had been found at the party, Damon wondered? Or was his reaction to those words part of something else?

"When'd you get here?"

_Ahh, brother, never one for chitchat. Not even a 'how've you been the past decade.' Where _are _your manners?_

"Well I couldn't miss your first day of _school,_" Damon said mockingly, walking over to the bookshelf, glancing at it to see if there was anything worthy of his attention. He glanced at Stefan, examining him. "Your hair's different. I like it," Damon added with a small smirk. He knew that his casual words were slowly driving a stake into Stefan's _brain _as his younger brother tried to work out why Damon was there.

"It's been _fifteen years,_ Damon." Stefan still looked as serious as ever. It was hard to believe that once, they had been more than brothers - they'd been best friends.

"Thank _God,_" Damon exclaimed. "I couldn't take another day of the nineties." Damon walked back over to Stefan's desk. Did he keep a picture of Katherine there? His precious _journal_? Damon wondered what he had written about Elena in it. "That horrible grunge look?" Damon started laughing at the memory of it. To picture the sickeningly sweet and (unfortunately) reasonably good-looking Saint Stefan look anything less than his usual so-called _perfect _self was, well... amusing, to say the least. "Did not suit you. Remember Stefan, it's important to stay away from fads!"

"WHY are you here?" Stefan asked. God, was that all he did was ask questions? Still, Damon was enjoying this back and forth banter of two brothers who hadn't seen each other for a long time - even if they hated each other.

"I missed my little brother," Damon answered tauntingly.

"You hate small towns. It's boring, there's nothing for you to do." If that was Stefan's attempt at getting Damon to agree to leave town, it was less than pitiful. Besides...

"I've managed to keep myself busy," Damon retorted, unable to keep the smile from his face. The young couple he had killed, the girl from the party... oh yes, things were definitely more interesting when he kept himself busy.

"You know you left that girl alive tonight," Stefan continued, disapproval thick in his voice. Damon acknowledged it carelessly before Stefan went on. "That was very clumsy of you."

_Clumsy? _Damon thought with a small smirk. _You can't possibly believe that I'd actually slip up like that by accident. Stefan, Stefan... ever the naive Salvatore. _

"Ahh, that could be a problem," Damon admitted. "For _you._"

Stefan just shook his head, staring at Damon with the usual hatred and judgement in his eyes. Damon stared back without blinking.

"Why are you here now?" Stefan asked tiredly.

"I could ask you the same question, however, I'm fairly certain your answer could be summed up all into one little word: Elena." Damon smiled and watched with complete satisfaction as the expression on Stefan's face changed. He was no longer guarding his reactions, because the one thing he had been trying to keep hidden was out of the bag now. Damon smiled, knowing he had caught his brother off guard.

Stefan seemed unable to form words. Damon watched his brother struggle to figure out what to say or do to make this all go away. When the silence stretched too long, Damon spoke.

"She took my breath away, Elena." His voice was softer than before, a little surprised. "She's a dead-ringer for Katherine." For a moment the thoughts of Katherine made all the pain resurface, but Damon threw it aside, his voice regaining it's edge. "Is it working Stefan? Being around her, being in her world - does it make you feel _alive?_" Though his tone is mocking, Damon can't help but feel anger envelope around him. Stefan doesn't deserve to have someone make him feel alive; again and again, fate gave Stefan precisely what his heart desired.

"She's _not _Katherine."

"Well let's hope not," Damon said dismissively. "We both know how _that _ended."

Katherine, presumed dead. Gone from their lives, stolen from Damon by the one he had once trusted most. He tried to make it sound like it was of no importance to him, but of all the human emotions he had before changing, his love for Katherine was the one that remained.

"Tell me something," Damon went on, changing the subject. "When's the last time you had something stronger than a squirrel?" Stefan seemed annoyed at the turn in their conversation and he looked away.

"I know what you're doing, Damon, and it's not going to work." Saint Stefan, ever so self-righteous.

_It is going to work, Stefan, because I know your weakness now. _Damon slapped Stefan's arm, his face, even shoved him. He taunted and tempted Stefan to go feed off humans. Nothing seemed to bring out the darker, vampire side that Damon knew was bottled inside - nothing, that is, until Damon mentioned _her._

"Let's just cut to the chase, let's just go straight for Elena!" Damon cried. Stefan shoved him back. It wasn't enough to even annoy Damon, but it certainly amused him.

_"Stop it!" _Stefan roared.

"Imagine what her blood tastes like!" Damon yelled passionately. Stefan's face darkened, the veins popping out as he turned to shield his face. "_I _can."

"I SAID _STOP!" _In the blink of an eye Stefan's face had transformed as he snarled and flew toward Damon, gripping his arms tightly around Damon and knocking him out the window forcefully.

Damon smirked; he had to admit, he hadn't expected to get quite _that _much of a rise out of Stefan, but it was a pleasant surprise. How deep did Stefan's feelings for that human girl run? _You love her, _Damon realized angrily. _You love her so much already, and you don't even know her yet. Did you even love Katherine, or were you only interested in taking her away from _me?

Before they hit the ground, Damon snatched Stefan's lapis lazuli ring and separated himself from him before quickly going over to lean against the hedges surrounding their front entrance. He watched as Stefan struggled to stand up; the effort it took was far too much. Stefan seemed shocked that Damon wasn't beneath him, and he looked back up at the house as if expecting to see his brother looking down on him from the window.

"I was impressed," Damon said loudly, drawing Stefan's attention to his actual location. "I give it six - mix on style, but I was pleasantly surprised." He smiled as Stefan stood up and looked over at him warily. "Very good with the whole face _GARARRRH _thing," Damon said, making his hand look like a paw with claws sticking out as he laughed. "It was good."

"Yeah it's all fun and games Damon, huh?" Stefan interrupted, walking towards Damon. "But wherever you go, people _die._"

"That's given," Damon said, brushing it off.

"Not here," Stefan warned him. "I won't allow it."

_Won't _allow _it? _Damon thought, hearing the threat in Stefan's words. _Ha. Like you could stop me._

"I take that as an invitation," Damon replied. There was no smirk on his face now; no one, especially his _little _brother, told him what to do.

"Damon, _please,_" Stefan said pleadingly. "After all these years, can't we just give it a rest?"

"I _promised _you an eternity of misery. I'm just keeping my word." Damon said, moving closer to Stefan.

"Just _stay - away - _from Elena." Stefan warned slowly. Damon ignored his threat and looked at Stefan's hand, pretending to suddenly notice the absence of the lapis lazuli on his finger.

"Where's your ring?" Damon asked, feigning concern. Stefan looked down at his hand immediately and saw it was gone. "You know, the sun's coming up in a couple hours and then - _poof. _Ashes to ashes." Damon forced a look of horror on his face, though the thought was actually quite tempting. He saw how helpless Stefan looked in that moment, and then laughed. "Relax," Damon told Stefan, walking over to him. "It's _right _here."

Damon held out his hand to Stefan, the ring in the middle of his palm. He watched as Stefan stared at him, probably contemplating whether or not it was a trap. Finally Stefan reached out and grabbed it, slipping it onto his finger.

The moment the ring was on, Damon's face transformed and he wrapped his hand around Stefan's neck roughly, growling. He threw him aside with no effort at all, showing off his powers, his _strength, _because he chose to live like a true vampire.

Stefan fell in a heap on the ground and Damon loomed over him, no longer hiding the anger from his face.

"You should know better than to think you're stronger than me. You lost that fight when you stopped feeding on people - I _wouldn't _try it again." The scent of fear and hopelessness filled the air, but Damon was too far gone to enjoy it. His anger had completely consumed him as he watched his brother struggle to catch his breath.

The sound of a door opening and closing reached Damon's ears, and he smirked.

"I think we woke Zack up," Damon told Stefan. He glanced at Stefan one last time before laughing and walking away. "Sorry Zack!" Damon said loud enough for their human relative to hear.

As he walked into the house, he heard Zack running out to check on Stefan. Damon _tsked _before going into the den and pouring himself a drink. He swirled the alcohol around in the glass and heard Zack enter the room behind him. Damon waited, pretending not to notice - it took only ten seconds for the man to start sneaking up closer to Damon.

"Hello, Zack," Damon said conversationally, turning around. Zack tried to shove the stake into him, but Damon stuck his hand out and grabbed it, twisting it around slowly until Zack's arm was just about to pop.

"Stop it, Damon." Stefan's voice filtered into the room, and Damon pulled the stake away from Zack effortlessly, throwing the man down to the ground.

"If you insist, but I'd like to point out that I was merely _defending_ myself," Damon smiled down at Zack. "You're family, Zack, and probably full of vervain. Unless you piss me off or get in my way, I have no reason to even think about killing you - for now. Don't give me one, and put your little vampire hunting toys away."

Zack looked like he wanted to say something, but with a warning glance from Stefan, shut his mouth and left the room.

"Damon..."

"Oh, no, brother. We've talked enough for one night." Damon took a sip of his drink, turning to face Stefan and leaning against the table. Stefan crossed his arms, walking up to Damon.

"You can't stay here."

"But Stefan," Damon exclaimed, pretending to be hurt, "this is my home! I'm your _brother!_"

"You haven't been my brother for a very long time, Damon." Stefan reminded him quietly. Damon moved forward suddenly, causing Stefan to back up.

"And we both know whose to blame for that, don't we?" Damon whispered. Stefan shut his mouth and didn't say anything. Damon handed his glass to Stefan. "I need stronger alcohol if I'm going to be staying here - later, alligator." Damon smirked before turning around and heading to the Mystic Grill.

* * *

**Author's Note: **I did not anticipate how difficult it would be trying to write from Damon's perspective as the crow. It took a lot to get it out the way I did, and I'm still not fully satisfied with it, but it's better than it was the first time I tried doing those scenes haha. Hopefully you guys don't hate those scenes completely but hey, if you do - there's very few scenes of him like that in the show! WOO!

_**Here's a question for you guys to answer**__**: Do you like each episode being put into a single lengthy chapter, or would you prefer to split each episode into a few chapters and have them shorter? **__Let me know in your review!_


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